Archive for the ‘Everything Goes’ Category

Tuesday, December 9th, 2014

I got this message this morning on the Facebook:

Hey Brian Biggs! We haven’t met, but my friend Amy Ignatow recommended your books for my daughter and she LOVES them. adores. Devours. Our car battery finally died today, and when my husband and I were talking about needing a new one, she just said “it’s not the battery.” (She always takes the not battery side of the debate!). I think it’s the battery. Anyway, thanks for the outstanding books.

Wednesday, October 23rd, 2013

(This post was partially written yesterday, October 22, before my old and reliable laptop took a day off while on my current book tour. 24 hours later, the cursed device suddenly began working again, so I’m currently sitting in the staff break room of Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh NC finishing this post and getting it up into the world…)

Today (yesterday) is October 22, which is the day that HarperCollins is publishing Everything Goes: By Sea, the third, last, and final picture book in the Everything Goes series. What this means is that you can go buy it now. So, that said, I’ll take a little break here and let you take care of that business.

The publication of this third book in the series represents the culmination of about six years of pretty solid work for me on this project. I first started knocking around the idea of Everything Goes back in 2007, at which point it was just a note in a sketchbook that said “transportation project.” I loved (love — I still do…) drawing vehicles of all kinds. I created a book for French publisher Éditions du Rouergue back in 2003 that I had a blast making, and my literary agent Steven Malk had been encouraging me to racket in vehicles again but with something more palatable to American publishers.

By summer of 2008 I had a folder thick with ideas. My good friend and longtime creative sorter-outer Jason and I spent a couple of days going through the piles of dozens of pages of script and hundreds of sketches, trying to find threads that held the various decent ideas together. After these marathon sessions at the Philadelphia Central Library, I could see what was going on and where it could go, and it was at that point that I started to get excited.

It was at a coffee shop with my now-wife Sacha that I realized that this was not one huge tome, but rather would be best split into three separate books, each covering a different mode of transport (land, air, sea).

And then it was in May of 2009 that I created a proposal that my agent took to publishing houses and led to Donna Bray at Balzer+Bray/HarperCollins offering to publish it. Donna also suggested that we include three I Can Read books and six board books in the enterprise, which made the whole thing feel huge.

The first book was begun in earnest around the beginning of 2010 and completed more than a year later, in February 2011. The second book was done in March 2012, and the third book was done April 22, 2013. The first book took longer since it set the template for the next two.
The very final piece I drew was this little boat for the endpapers of By Sea. In fact, it was the word “WOO” that completed the work.

I like process, and I always love seeing the preliminary work that goes into a book or film or almost anything. So I’m posting here a bunch of images of sketches and the work that went into the cover for Everything Goes By Sea.

These two images are from my little moleskine sketchbooks that I keep. As I began thinking about and planning the By Sea cover, I knew pretty quickly that I was going to have the “By Sea” subtitle on the sails of a sailboat, so that motif appears pretty quickly. Looking at these now, I’m a little surprised how much the partial cover-sketch at the top of the second image looks like the final cover.

This is the first rough thumbnail of the entire cover. By the time the third book in this series comes along, a couple of things are already designed and in place. For example, the Everything Goes logo will be the same as before and will be in the same place, and the subtitle of the book (By Sea) and my name will be incorporated into the illustration in some way. Here are the previous two covers for comparison.

These two images are pretty similar and, in fact, are created from the same drawing. Or in this case possibly several drawings, since at this stage I’m sometimes drawing some of the boats separately, scanning and placing them into the sketch digitally. That’s how I put the logo on the cover as well. The second image is the one I send to HarperCollins, where the shading and title logo makes the piece look a little more finished and slick.

After I get approval on the sketch, the next thing I make is this inked line-drawing of the cover. This is my favorite part of the process. I use black ink with a brush, but my ink is watered down quite a lot (a little more than I’d like, actually) which is why the big black areas actually look grey. Again, the drawing is made without the title logo, since the logo was created for the first book and I just use that again each time I need it.

There is a pretty good little video of me doing this part of the process with the second book, In the Air, here.

The inked line drawing is scanned into the computer and then it’s opened in Photoshop where all of the coloring and final work takes place.

This is the same line-art drawing once it’s scanned in and touched up.It now has the title added to it and I’ve cleaned up the lines a little. Often, cleaning up the lines means a significant amount of Photoshop surgery, but in this case it was pretty close to right the first time.

And here, as at the top of the page, is the final finished color cover.

Also, here is a video of the digital coloring of the second cover so you can see how that is done.

I thought I might also include a couple of real-world uses for a book such as this. The first example was taken by a friend of mine in Calgary, Alberta who has a son named Bas. Bas is apparently enjoying Everything Goes By Sea.

The second and third photo is a display at the book store where I am currently writing this missive. Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh NC has a beautiful display of Everything Goes books, and if you have a book store or even a living room, I encourage you set up something similar.

Tuesday, October 22nd, 2013

So today is publication day for third and final Everything Goes book, called By Sea. I had a nice juicy blog post with lots of pictures and sketches lined up to post today but today is also the day that my trusty seven-year-old Mac decided to go belly up. Even worse, it happened on the second day of my book tour while preparing to give a presentation to 75 kids at the wonderful Washington DC book store Politics & Prose.
So I improvised, doing a bit of an analog song and dance, and am now posting this via my phone while on the way to Raleigh NC, trying to figure out what to do next. Going to the Raleigh Apple Store and getting a new laptop is a strong option.

In the meantime, today is publication day for Everything Goes By Sea and I couldn’t be more thrilled! Stay tuned and I’ll get that blog post up ASAP.

Sunday, October 20th, 2013

In about an hour or so I’ll be leaving for the Everything Goes By Sea book tour. I’m going to Washington DC, Alexandria VA, Raleigh NC, Chapel Hill NC, and Decatur GA, returning to Philadelphia next Saturday. I had a great time last year in Chicago IL and Oxford MS, and I suspect this time it’ll be just as interesting.
I noticed that I’m traveling via train, car, and airplane, so I suppose it’s sort of ironic that this is for By Sea. Of course, I lobbied for a cruise tour to Hawaii and the Caribbean, but I lost that fight.

Wednesday, April 24th, 2013

I’d like to first announce that this past Friday at 8:19pm, I completed the third and final Everything Goes picture book, called Everything Goes: By Sea. Due to some things over the last six months like a book tour in September, my wedding in October, a week of jury duty in November, and breaking my hand in December, this book was late late late. I’m sure that everyone at HarperCollins was pulling their hair out by the time I got the final illustration complete and turned in, but overall they were very nice not to tell me about it as I madly completed the work over the last few weeks. The very very final piece that I did was the endpapers, which I have a part of here for you to look at.

What was the last part of this that I drew? It was, appropriately, the word “WOO” on top of the small water taxi.

Now, this isn’t the end of Everything Goes. I still have one more board book to complete, and then there will be parties and fireworks when this book is published in September. But as I’ve been drawing cars, trucks, airplanes, and boats pretty solid since about 2007 as I conceived of, worked on, and completed this book series, I’m very excited to hit “save” and spend some time now making other things.*

In other Everything Goes news, I was surprised to find this big box of books in my mailbox this morning, full of several copies of the Complex Chinese version of Everything Goes: On Land. Two different publishers are making versions of Everything Goes in China. One is this one, published by Global Kids in Taiwan, and the second one is translated into Simplified Chinese, and published by Tianjin Maitian. Now, I don’t really know the difference between complex and simplified Chinese, nor do I know how or whether they are different from Mandarin or other kinds of Chinese. If any readers know the answer to this, I’d very much love to know about it.

I was skeptical whether this book would be possible to translate, what with the gazillions of labels and signs and details all over the place. However, the publisher did a knock-out job with this, even using the textures and outlines and stuff that I did on the original. It must have been some really tedious work, even more since they had to translate what I made, where what I made was often kind of random. Again, I’d love to know how close they got, especially like on the food trucks and some of the other details. Let me know if you can read any of this and I might have a book to send you.

Tuesday, March 5th, 2013

I just realized that I haven’t posted anything here since January 10. The entire (but not so long) month of February sailed by and I have been absent. So before we begin talking about school visits, I should mention that my lack of visibility here can be attributed to the lateness of Everything Goes: By Sea and my current crazy rush to get it done. Breaking my hand on Christmas morning didn’t do any wonders for my schedule, and as soon as the cast came off in February I more or less locked myself in my studio and went back to drawing. I’ll write more about this progress later.
Another relevant thing is the “Sketch of the Day” album I’ve been posting on my Facebook page. I realized I should use my Facebook page more than I do (kinda like this blog!) and this is a fun and easy way to do it. If you don’t already, go “like” the page and follow the sketches.

Okay so to the meat and potatoes. I visited the schools of Southampton Township, NJ, last Friday. I showed and talked about my drawings and Everything Goes to about 400 students over the course of the day. I might have written this here (or elsewhere) before, but visiting schools is one of those mental-health moments that is so good for people like me. Most people take mental-health days from work and stay home. Since I work alone in my studio 99% of the time, it’s great to go somewhere and be adored. I hate the morning and afternoon rush-hour traffic (how do you commuters stand it? it’s insane!) but it’s worth it once I’m at the school.

So I’m just gonna post a bunch of pictures of the visit and the day, and let you see what the students and teachers made. Thanks to Jacquie Daddato for having me out to Southampton and thanks to all the teachers, staff and students for making it such a great day.

One of three full-house presentations.

That guy.

I signed more than 300 books!

And here are a bunch of drawings that they made inspired by Everything Goes.

Thursday, January 10th, 2013

I get invited to local book fairs, book stores, book festivals, and so on; and I often run into this dude named Erik. Erik is probably something like 13 years old, and Erik loves books. He writes a column for his local newspaper, The Upper Bucks County Free Press about books, and he has his own blog, called This Kid Reviews Books. Recently at one of these local book events where I run into Erik, he asked if he could interview me for his blog, and of course I said yes.

Thursday, December 20th, 2012

I’ve always always loved board books. Big thick cardboard books, ostensibly for little kids who like to chew on things. Since Everything Goes was first conceived back in 2008, I wanted there to be board books with my cars and trucks and stuff. And now, I’m vey happy to tell you, there are. In fact, there will be six before I’m done. Sadly, they’re not “officially” released until the day after Christmas, but I hear that some stores and retailers have them on the shelves already, in time for the holiday.

The first is called 123 Beep Beep Beep: A Counting Book and it is what it says.

The second book is called STOP! GO!: A Book of Opposites. This one is similarly simply-plotted.

The next two board books, Blue Bus Red Balloon and Goodnight Trucks get more complicated, story-wise, and will be out next year sometime.

Friday, September 28th, 2012

I’m currently touring several cities in support of my Everything Goes series. More details and anecdotes about this week of school visits and bookstore events will follow once I return to Philadelphia, but something happened today that I just have to share.
I was at Prairie Point Elementary School in Oswego, Illinois on Wednesday. This was my only event scheduled for the day, so we were able to slow things down a bit and have a little more fun than is usually possible at a school visit. It was a terrific group of kids at Prairie Point and it was extremely well-put-together by the school librarian, Ms. Carol Patterson.

First of all, there were cookies.

Since we had extra time, I got a chance to make a big drawing for the kids after my regular slide show. When I do these drawings, I like to have the students pick the subject, and it was decided that I needed to draw a dog riding a “weird motorcycle.” The dog was carrying an ice cream cone, and the cherry of the ice cream cone was stuck to the dog’s motorcycle helmet. Okay? Got it? This is an important detail.

“Um, do you remember today at Prairie Point that you talked to us about your books?”

I say, now with a bit of trepidation, “…..Yes”

“I’m the one in the green shirt. Do you remember me?”

Now I’m lying, because I’m not really sure. “Yesssss….”

“I want to know when, um, Everything Goes in the Sea, or by Sea or whatever it is, is coming out.”

I told him, in a year. September of next year.

And then he hung up.

So I got a lot of mileage out of this, telling this story. Little did I know that this wasn’t the end of it.

Today I’m in Oxford, Mississippi visiting Square Books Jr. I was in the bookstore having a coffee and, again, my phone rings with that same Illinois phone number. I didn’t answer it this time and instead let it go to voicemail. I figured if he didn’t leave a message, all the better; and if he does leave a message it will probably be worth having. Boy was I right. I listened to it just before starting my signing event at the store and as I listened I nearly cried. Yes, out of wonder and joy but also because it’s freaking hilarious. Listen up.

[audio:student-phonecall.mp3]

The audio is transcribed below in case there are parts that are hard to understand.

Hello Brian Biggs um

Remember when you came to Prairie Point you called on the guy with the shirt with the green shirt. I’m him and I really — when I read your book…

IT was AWESOME. I mean…

I like your writing and stuff and that um, that um, the um, that picture where you um, the picture where you were like sitting and saying, “I love to draw” something like that.
You gave me a little clue and that little clue gave me an idea and that clue told me that um, I saw, I saw your writing and I thought you, your, like, your writing is awesome and I like how you draw that mouth on the weird, the dog with the cherry thingy with the, the weird motorcycle you came to Prairie Point and Mrs. Patterson told, and (indecipherable), I love your books and the, the one that Everything Goes: In the Air, I LOVE that one because it shows different kinds of planes and facts about those planes..

I learned a LOT from your books.

Thanks.

Bye.

I don’t think I suffer much in my work. I get to draw cool stuff and I work in a neat studio and I make a living and all that. It’s all good. But when I spend weeks on end by myself in my little garage in Philadelphia, it’s easy to sometimes forget that this Guy in Green Shirt is out there. So I’m glad I have it now to listen to when things aren’t just perfect.

Before you get all excited and go camp out at your bookstore to wait, I should mention that only two of these stops, Oxford and Chapel Hill, are going to be public bookstore events. The others are school appearances and a booksellers conference. But here are the details of the two bookstore events.

On Friday, September 28, I’ll be at Square Books Jr. in Oxford, MS for a 4:00pm event. Square Books Jr. is at 111 Courthouse Square Oxford, Mississippi 38655. I have a friend here in Philly that tells me that Oxford is a great little town and Square Books is a great shop, so I’m really looking forward to this.

The other stops on the tour are going to be big school events hosted by Anderson’s Books in Naperville, The Bookstall in Winnetka, and the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association conference in Arlington VA. I attended last year’s conference in Atlantic City and it was terrific, so I’m pleased that they asked me back this year.